Need opinion on Christmas gift

[BriarfoxinWA]

So as one of my Mom's Christmas gifts I was going to do a photo calendar. Problem is I can't find 12 decent pictures of the boys from the past year to do it with. While I was looking through the ones on my computer I realized I have a ton of really old family photos. Mostly ones of my grandparents and great grandparents when they were young. I'm thinking about doing a calendar with these instead. I could also send it to my Aunt and thought it would be cool since these photos are ones that we don't look at very often. My only hesitation is that I worry that it might be depressing since my Mom and Aunt are elderly and all of the people in the photos have passed.

Any thoughts?

 

[happygirl]

So as one of my Mom's Christmas gifts I was going to do a photo calendar. Problem is I can't find 12 decent pictures of the boys from the past year to do it with. While I was looking through the ones on my computer I realized I have a ton of really old family photos. Mostly ones of my grandparents and great grandparents when they were young. I'm thinking about doing a calendar with these instead. I could also send it to my Aunt and thought it would be cool since these photos are ones that we don't look at very often. My only hesitation is that I worry that it might be depressing since my Mom and Aunt are elderly and all of the people in the photos have passed.

Any thoughts?

I think it's a great idea.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Could you marry the two concepts? As in here we are now and this is where we came from? Maybe include some family anecdotes and maybe something from your kids? Past, present, future?

 

[lovesmurfs]

So as one of my Mom's Christmas gifts I was going to do a photo calendar. Problem is I can't find 12 decent pictures of the boys from the past year to do it with. While I was looking through the ones on my computer I realized I have a ton of really old family photos. Mostly ones of my grandparents and great grandparents when they were young. I'm thinking about doing a calendar with these instead. I could also send it to my Aunt and thought it would be cool since these photos are ones that we don't look at very often. My only hesitation is that I worry that it might be depressing since my Mom and Aunt are elderly and all of the people in the photos have passed.

Any thoughts?

I think it would be awesome.

As my grandmother ages (she's turning 90), for gifts I've tried to give her good memories of her childhood -- a picture book of Brooklyn during the time period she was growing up (thank you Dover Books!), a book of Ukrainian poetry, etc. The best would be (if she's close) would be to have your mom go through the pictures with your children and tell them about the people in the pictures.

This year I'm going to make some Kolach (Ukrainian Christmas bread) and overnight it to her -- If I make it fresh one day and she receives it the next morning, it should still be fresh. Last night when I called to tell her that I'd made it for a class presentation my DD did, she nearly burst into tears and spent 15 minutes telling me how her mother prepared for Christmas eve dinner.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Sounds wonderful to me!

I might consider a nice photobook instead.
Have you done those before.
Plenty of room for captions/commentary/memories, etc...
And, it isn't obsolete at the end of the year.

I got a free photobook by posting a review on TripAdvisor.
I did our vacation from May..
It is in the mail, and I am looking forward to it!

 

[mtemm]

I think it sounds wonderful!!! and it is giving me some cool ideas, too.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

Love the idea of a photo book! I'm going to see if I can borrow my mom's photo albums tomorrow and scan her pictures of me and my siblings and my folk's wedding photos. I didn't realize how easy it would be to put that together until I looked into it.

Thanks for the great idea!

 

[Passionada]

So as one of my Mom's Christmas gifts I was going to do a photo calendar. Problem is I can't find 12 decent pictures of the boys from the past year to do it with. While I was looking through the ones on my computer I realized I have a ton of really old family photos. Mostly ones of my grandparents and great grandparents when they were young. I'm thinking about doing a calendar with these instead. I could also send it to my Aunt and thought it would be cool since these photos are ones that we don't look at very often. My only hesitation is that I worry that it might be depressing since my Mom and Aunt are elderly and all of the people in the photos have passed.

Any thoughts?

What a wonderful idea! You can also get one of those digital photo frames with a large screen and have the pictures constantly on display. Just will have to scan in all the images in good quality and add them onto a small memory stick. Otherwise, the calendar is just awesome. They will love it! Don't worry about them getting depressed - they won't! It's always lovely to look at your loved ones...the photos keep them alive in our thoughts! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[NHdisneylover]

I agree with others to mix in the old photos and newer ones (and use good photos of your boys from all their lives, not just this year). Also, do not forget photos of you--your parents probably want pictures of THEIR kid you know

If you have lots of photos, and your in-laws play cards, you may want to make custom card decks. I just ordered two decks from arstcow. They were $10 each and the cards will all have the same photo on the back (I used my in-laws' wedding photo) and each card has a different photo on the face. I put in all their kids and grandkids and the in laws and their own siblings and anything else I could find. I tried to cover lots of years. It was surprisingly easy to put together.

 

[IDoDis]

I think it's a great idea! Just be careful about making the old photos larger once they are scanned. You can't really mess with the pixels like that or the pictures will be out of focus. You could resize them small though and put several on a page for each month.

I don't think looking back at happier times makes people sad. At least for me, it makes me happy because remembering those older happy times give me a warm feeling in my heart.

 

[minniecarousel]

My younger son & daughter-in-law did one for my Mom and one for DH & I a few years ago. They were a big hit! They even had to sneak into the house and go through photo albums when we weren't here!

 

[Pig Pen]

I did something like this for my mom. When my grandmother passed away she left behind boxes and boxes of old slides. No one had a projector so I took them to a videographer and he transferred them to CDs. I had one nice photo of my mom, grandma, and grandpa printed and framed, then gave her all the cds to view on her computer.

She cried like a baby.

 

[Rora]

Sounds like a great idea to me!

If you want to still give a picture of your kids, maybe get one blown up and framed or, have it made into canvas wall art.

 

[C.Ann]

So as one of my Mom's Christmas gifts I was going to do a photo calendar. Problem is I can't find 12 decent pictures of the boys from the past year to do it with. While I was looking through the ones on my computer I realized I have a ton of really old family photos. Mostly ones of my grandparents and great grandparents when they were young. I'm thinking about doing a calendar with these instead. I could also send it to my Aunt and thought it would be cool since these photos are ones that we don't look at very often. My only hesitation is that I worry that it might be depressing since my Mom and Aunt are elderly and all of the people in the photos have passed.

Any thoughts?

Great idea!! What a treasure..

I really don't think it will be depressing.. I think most people who have lost loved ones (regardless of when) find it more depressing that people never want to talk about them anymore for fear of upsetting someone..

Personally, I would love something like that!

 

[scrapquitler]

So as one of my Mom's Christmas gifts I was going to do a photo calendar. Problem is I can't find 12 decent pictures of the boys from the past year to do it with. While I was looking through the ones on my computer I realized I have a ton of really old family photos. Mostly ones of my grandparents and great grandparents when they were young. I'm thinking about doing a calendar with these instead. I could also send it to my Aunt and thought it would be cool since these photos are ones that we don't look at very often. My only hesitation is that I worry that it might be depressing since my Mom and Aunt are elderly and all of the people in the photos have passed.

Any thoughts?

I think it's a great idea More likely, rather than being depressing it will bring back a lot of great memories and lead to a lot of laughter and storytelling and reminiscing about the past. You might end up hearing a lot of family stories that you never heard before!